A graft is typically used in conjunction with a stent to provide a prosthetic intraluminal wall, e.g., in the case of a stenosis or aneurysm, to provide an unobstructed conduit for blood in the area of the stenosis or aneurysm. A stent-graft may be endoluminally deployed in a body lumen, a blood vessel for example, at the site of a stenosis or aneurysm by so-called “minimally invasive techniques” in which the stent-graft is compressed radially inwards and is delivered by a catheter to the site where it is required, through the patient's skin, or by a “cut down” technique at a location where the blood vessel concerned is accessible. When the stent-graft is positioned at the correct location, the stent-graft is caused or allowed to re-expand to a predetermined diameter in the vessel.
Some early stent-grafts were manufactured by bonding the graft material to the stent frame with an adhesive, e.g., Corethane®. However, such an adhesive alone may not be sufficient to secure the graft to the stent during loading, as the graft material may peel away (i.e., separate) from the stent. Suture ties may also be utilized to fix the graft to the stent. However, suture attachment of the graft to the stent may create holes throughout the graft resulting in porosity which may be undesirable. For these and other reasons, improvements in securing a graft to a stent may have significant utility as compared to prior stent-graft combinations.